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Peter Ngo knew from an early age that he wanted to be involved with fashion and art. Through a singular focus and hard work, that is where he is making his mark: at John Varvatos in East Hampton and at the various galleries and art spaces that have shown his photography and paintings.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the art world cognoscenti and mere tourists would walk the streets of SoHo, then Chelsea, and even more recently the Lower East Side, with “Gallery Guide” booklets clutched to their chests. Now, it’s more likely that they are looking at their phones, parsing the disparate information and endorsements available online for their favorite galleries and artists.

The last time Victoria Bond spoke with The Star, it was 1999 and she was working on an opera that would become “Mrs. President.” In the 15 years since, she has several more operas to her credit, as well as many other musical pieces for voice, individual instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestras.

The Drawing Room and its partners, Emily Goldstein and Victoria Munroe, celebrate a decade in East Hampton with a surprisingly cohesive salon-style show in its always pleasant but somewhat small gallery space.

There is, no doubt, something scattershot about “Attitudes,” this year’s version of the Tripoli Gallery’s annual holiday collective. (It was officially dubbed the Thanksgiving Collective, but we are so far past that now, it seems confusing to hold on to that title, as the show has been extended though Jan. 25.)

Is it possible the holidays are finally over? Or worse, that the long nights of winter are now here? It used to be that the six weeks between New Year’s Day and Presidents Day were a dark lonely period of reflection and hibernation. Now, they’re an arts extravaganza, if not on par with the summer, then at least more accessible to the natives.

Herewith, six weeks of activities to keep even the most astute aficionado of cultural events busy and sated.

“Law & Order,” a show in its last week at Harper’s Books in East Hampton, is perfectly appropriate for the milieu. Brad Phillips, a Canadian artist, makes visual art often using text as subject matter, and not just any text but deeply evocative, assertive, assaulting, and sometimes disturbing text.

It’s been quite a year for Sarah Koenig. The Sagaponack native and Sag Harbor summer resident has gone from being known among a small, quirky subset of brainy public radio listeners for “This American Life” to what might be called an international sensation among a larger, quirky set of brainy podcast listeners. All for “Serial,” which has set iTunes records for being the fastest podcast to reach more than 5 million downloads and streams.

The ground beneath the Hamptons art fairs is shifting this summer. For the past three years, Art Southampton held its fair at the Elks Lodge on County Road 39 in Southampton and opened two weeks after ArtHamptons and Art Market Hamptons. Nick Korniloff, director of Art Southampton, said last year he liked being on the highway and opening later. Yet he announced recently that his fair will be moving to Nova’s Ark on Millstone Road in Bridgehampton in 2015 and will run from July 9 through 13, two weeks earlier than last year.

One of the second wave of 20th-century artists who found their way to the South Fork and used the landscape as a chief source of inspiration, Jane Freilicher died on Dec. 9 at home in New York City of complications of pneumonia. She was 90.

The Town of Southampton has asked residents to keep pets safe and warm indoors during these extreme weather conditions. Cold temperatures can be dangerous and even fatal to animals, which share a similar vulnerability to frostbite and hypothermia as humans.

Other dangers include salt and ice melting pellets, which can be toxic to animals, and automotive anti-freeze, which can cause renal failure and death. Most area stores carry products that melt ice, but are not toxic to pets.

The Southampton Cultural Center will celebrate Black History Month a bit early this year with a show dedicated to six regional and local artists opening on Saturday.

Those exhibiting will include: Rosa Hanna Scott, a painter and photographer; John Pinderhughes, a photographer; Reynold Ruffins, an abstract artist; Tina Andrews, an abstract painter and sculptor; Sheril Antonio, a photographer; and Danny Simmons, an abstract artist.

The Southampton Cultural Center has added an additional audition for “A Chorus Line” on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Michael Disher will direct the Pulitzer-prize winning play with music by Marvin Hamlisch, who was a long-time Sag Harbor and Westhampton resident, with lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a book by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante.

Although the starring roles of Zach and Cassie have been cast, there are still several roles, particularly male roles, that have not been filled.

Five buildings comprised this year’s East Hampton Historical Society house tour, all in East Hampton Village. An ambitious person, or one with a new Fitbit, could have walked it.

With a house and guest cottage on Buell Lane, two houses on Hither Lane, and one on Further Lane it was a real snapshot of how the style of people lived in earlier days could brought up to contemporary needs and preferences.

The tour happens every year the Saturday after Thanksgiving and features new houses each year.

While the actual Art Basel Miami Beach fair won’t open to the public until Thursday, many of the satellite fairs sprouting up all over Miami this week will open their doors to patrons today and tomorrow.

Untitled, one of the fairs on the beach and the home of Eric Firestone Gallery and Halsey Mckay Gallery for the week, had its vernissage last night and will hold a VIP preview today before opening to the public tomorrow.

Artists associated with the East End helped Christie’s auction house take in a record-breaking $853 million on Wednesday night, with Andy Warhol leading the way with two works, “Triple Elvis” and “Four Marlons,” achieving $81.9 million and $69.6 million, respectively. Out of 80 lots, there were 30 by artists who have lived and worked here over the past century.

A colorful and artistic crowd gathered at Guild Hall on Saturday night to celebrate the opening of two new exhibitions: "Mary Ellen Bartley: Leaning Above the Page" and "New Additions and Works From the Permanent Collection."